Anger as a Private Company Takes Over Libraries - NYT

[sonomak]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/business/27libraries.html

September 26, 2010
Anger as a Private Company Takes Over Libraries
By DAVID STREITFELD

SANTA CLARITA, Calif. — A private company in Maryland has taken over public libraries in ailing cities in California, Oregon, Tennessee and Texas, growing into the country’s fifth-largest library system. Now the company, Library Systems & Services, has been hired for the first time to run a system in a relatively healthy city, setting off an intense and often acrimonious debate about the role of outsourcing in a ravaged economy.

A $4 million deal to run the three libraries here is a chance for the company to demonstrate that a dose of private management can be good for communities, whatever their financial situation. But in an era when outsourcing is most often an act of budget desperation — with janitors, police forces and even entire city halls farmed out in one town or another — the contract in Santa Clarita has touched a deep nerve and begun a round of second-guessing. Can a municipal service like a library hold so central a place that it should be entrusted to a profit-driven contractor only as a last resort — and maybe not even then?

“There’s this American flag, apple pie thing about libraries,” said Frank A. Pezzanite, the outsourcing company’s chief executive. He has pledged to save $1 million a year in Santa Clarita, mainly by cutting overhead and replacing unionized employees. “Somehow they have been put in the category of a sacred organization.” The company, known as L.S.S.I., runs 14 library systems operating 63 locations. Its basic pitch to cities is that it fixes broken libraries — more often than not by cleaning house.

“A lot of libraries are atrocious,” Mr. Pezzanite said. “Their policies are all about job security. That’s why the profession is nervous about us. You can go to a library for 35 years and never have to do anything and then have your retirement. We’re not running our company that way. You come to us, you’re going to have to work.”......

[hlthe2b]

1. Disgraceful... We are giving everything over to corporations...

Franklin would be turning in his grave...

[stray cat]

2. They should have closed the library down like other cities are doing

:shrug:

[Fumesucker]

4. Now the libraries will be just as easy and pleasant to deal with as the cable companies are..

That should be a welcome change..

[Pholus]

10. No, they should have did their duty as responsible stewards and MADE IT WORK

Of course, that requires a bit of effort and we all know the pro-business types in charge right now are kind of allergic to that unless it's the little people doing it for them.

[thunder rising]

3. Fahrenheit 451 ... all our books, belong to them. How original, cut wages and services and save

money. Who'da thunk?

[TreasonousBastard]

5. Librarians I know work pretty hard. What more do they do for this company...

Do they clean the toilets now because the janitors are fired?

Really, how do you bring "efficiency" to an operation like a library, with all of the things libraries now do?

[wmbrew0206]

6. I think it has more to do with the traditional benefits afforded to state workers

versus the benefits given to private companies.

20 years working as a public employee gives a full retirement package for life. Seeing as people are living longer, that is a big cost to state governments, who are facing bigger budget constraints.

I don't agree with it but I believe that is the rational.

[TreasonousBastard]

7. You're probably right-- replace degreed librarians as much as they can with...

lower skilled employees to fill chairs and reduce pay and benefits for all.

Every privatization scheme works on that premise because there just isn't that much to save anywhere else.

[wmbrew0206]

8. Having dealt with some Federal Contracting they can keep the degree requirements

It is more about being able to fire an employee at the drop of a hat, not having to provide health insurance for life, and a government pension.

Like I said, I don't agree with it as there is no protection for employees. A company can fire an employee for no reason, ie they hit a certain requirement to be paid more, and fill their spot with a brand new employee at a lower rate and still charge the government the same rate.

[eShirl]

15. "20 years working as a public employee gives a full retirement package for life. "

Where is this, so I can tell my brother.

[Nikki Stone1]

9. They've been starving public libraries for YEARS...just like the public school system

It's about control of the message...control of information. Just like public education.

[handmade34]

11. another sad day

[The Northerner]

12. Despicable, just despicable

[Matariki]

13. Sounds like "cleaning house" translates to getting rid of union employees.

What a rodent Frank A. Pezzanite seems to be.

[Hannah Bell]

14. That makes me sick. Disgusting. Not only for the obvious -- more privatization of public services

& gutting of public unions & labor protections, but increased control by private corps over information.

Libraries are one of the last bastions.